The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 488 - If You’re Practicing Combat Together, Why Not Add Bots?

Ondua’s Crystal whip-sword showed ’sparks’ of glinting light as it arced through the Exclave’s air, segments finally flowing in perfect coordination in the thick ambient essence. Each crystalline piece of the weapon now responded to his control as he worked through old forms. The rhythm was meditative, muscles remembering patterns practiced for decades. Kata that he had needed to define and refine on his own, trying out similar methods as more common weapons with only occasional help and pointers from the rare other user of unusual ones.

Striking sweep, retracting pivot, coiling loop, extending and locking.

Aleck trained nearby with his meteor hammer, with movements much the same - with the exception of pivots being done with more ’manual’ yanks and catches on the moving chain. The weighted sphere spun about with a form that was technically sound. He had excellent timing, proper footing for weight distribution, and suspiciously excellent spatial awareness for every part of the chain. But Ondua had fought enough battles to recognize the difference between muscle memory and pushing limits.

’The young man is clearly going through the motions.’

"Do that last one again. But this time, commit more to the strike. You’re holding back for the sake of adaptability."

The brunette man called out while the serrated tip of his weapon tore free from a wooden practice target. These training grounds were much larger than they seemed to need to be, considering only five people were ever in the Exclave at a time so far. But the father didn’t question it so much after witnessing a ’jet burst’ take Elua from one side of it to the other in moments. If anything, it was too small for her!

"Before you say you’re not - you are. I’ve never seen you in live combat outside of the duel at the competition, but even there I would claim you were afraid of the weapon’s full momentum. Afraid of what happens if you truly let it fly. Because we need the discipline to not be caught flat-footed, it’s even more important to perfect our killing strikes."

A jaw tightened at that assessment, delivered firmly but not unkindly. Aleck reset his stance and sent the meteor hammer spinning again through a few twists and pulls, building speed before hurling the weighted sphere without any of the braking attempts he usually incorporated. It struck the practice target dead center with a satisfying crack. But when he walked the distance to dislodge the hammer-end, he was forced to dodge a whirling set of invisible somethings.

The way his cloud-like spirit from the man came alive after his essence field - too thinly stretched along it - alerted him had been... quite informative. It had firmed exactly around the edges of the objects like it could tell precisely where they were even while spinning wildly moment to moment.

"That’s what I thought."

A young voice called out as the pieces of the Flurry Ring, launched like projectiles, became ’visible’. Elua had not made them impossible to dodge or completely undetectable beyond physical senses on purpose. She had of course read his spirit like she did anyone, but rarely did she take her own assessment of that reading - and the comparison to a practical mental library of meetings - as ’law’ until verifying with other tests and questions.

"A barely used Magnetic Element and a mostly willfully ignored Measure Astralism. You felt the magnets approaching, then your cloud of spirit firmed out to obtain enough information to drive your movements."

The object pieces twisted wildly on tornadic air currents before slamming roughly into place. Combined together, the disc was given enough torque to sling back into her direction... where the ancient cultivator allowed it to land like a dragonfly on a raised fingertip. The toy spun softly before losing its momentum and being clutched to her stomach.

Both men had turned to find her standing at the courtyard’s edge. The heiress looked quite tired. There were faint shadows under her mint eyes that suggested she’d been up for days. However, her gaze was sharp and focused directly on the person she’d come to bully.

’Training. It’s training. And data gathering, but mostly training.’

"You feel guilty about surviving when others did not, right?"

Caught off guard by the directness and seeming change of topic, Aleck blinked for a bit. Until her hand with the Flurry Ring raised and waved as if trying to move things along.

"I... yes?"

"Understood. You think having two complimentary Aspects - oh, not your Magnetic... that’s neat and valuable but unrelated right now - is unremarkable enough that you should be no better than anyone else. I could lecture you until it gets through, give you lessons on just how to train your Astralism and Physique to work in a better concerted effort than you’ve so far allowed."

Elua lifted her hand and snapped her fingers theatrically, with a small sonic burst of Gas that made it sound like a crack of thunder. The air in front of her rippled as a three foot white-metal sphere came out of nowhere. Floating at chest height, it seemed strangely harmless and elegant. With lines and patterns across its surface that mimicked the nonsensical nature of the basalt arch’s ’sigilry’ that helped obfuscate the real ritual lines.

"But... I am quite busy. So just... survive this instead. Knowing that it is done on purpose this time and not mere luck."

"Survive...? What is it even supposed to-"

The sphere split apart as he started to speak. First in half that revealed a terrifying center of serpentine coils, then each half into its own petal-like panel of ’carapace’ plates. Six limbs made from segmented Metal and Crystal flexed out with a disturbingly organic quality to the motion. Like an arthropod with a half dozen slithering snakes for legs.

Finally, two heavier articulated arms emerged at the front - one ending in a large blunt structure of stone ringed with metal... and the other in a wicked scissor-pincer set of blades lined with diamonds. The combat construct settled up on its legs with an alien poise that was not quite insectoid thanks to the lack of head and eyes. But the smooth carapace surfaces tilted and faced those on the training field in a way that somehow conveyed absolute awareness of their positions.

"Dear... what exactly is that?"

Both men had taken involuntary steps back from the pretty orb turned minor monstrosity. Yet Elua, unworried in the slightest, took a step toward it and pat one of the ’petals’ as a set of them bent in her direction. Striding away from it and in a path that would take her between both of them, she explained what she felt should be obvious.

"A security construct. Combat prototype. You’ll be fine, probably. It’s not currently set to kill, but it doesn’t quite have the information I need to prevent... accidents. That why you should do your best until I can adjust the difficulty, Aleck. I’m serious when I say you might die - and it would be all due to bad luck, if you aren’t truly skillful enough."

Once again, the illusionist disappeared from view. But neither were looking at her anyway, focused on the spiritual automaton bending lower while the front limbs positioned themselves. It looked like it could either be ready to lunge or prepared to receive attacks.

And neither of them quite wanted to figure out which.

’Just like I don’t want to figure out how much trouble I am in if Fusand ever sees my death-crab-things. Nohre will hate me if he wants to come back and play with them... or Divinities forbid want to take one home!’